John Firman and Ann Gila describe here the dangers and pitfalls associated with transpersonal experiences when they flow into an unprepared personality, distorting the impressions.
By John Firman and Ann Gila, Translation AnnaBritt Jakielski
The world today is torn apart by people who claim that God is on their side and who, completely certain of the correctness of their views, commit acts of violence. Such individuals are driven by the conviction that they are initiated into sacred truths and therefore morally obligated to do everything in their power—no matter how many people suffer—to act on those truths. Combined with their inflated sense of personal righteousness, moral certainty, and ideological purity, they tend to dehumanize and even demonize people who disagree with them.
Although this disorder may be called “religious fanaticism,” those who suffer from it do not appear wild or deranged; on the contrary, they present themselves as thoughtful and responsible people inspired by very lofty ideals. Yet their total belief in themselves and their cause, their willingness to cause massive destruction for the sake of a supposed higher good, and their dehumanization of their opponents point to an imbalance in the form of a personality disorder. We need not perhaps give specific examples of this type of disorder except to say that it can affect anyone, from the man in the street to the international terrorist and the leader of the most influential nation in the world.
Many psychological thinkers have pointed out the dynamics behind religious fanaticism. For example, CG Jung (1966) wrote about “positive inflation,” Alice Miller (1981) described grandiosity as a defense against depression, Gary Rosenthal (1987) used the term “spiritually inflated,” and Greg Bogart (1995) warned against the “dark side of calling.” Later (2000) Robert Jay Lifton described this kind of personality structure, which he called “functional megalomania,” as fueling what he calls “the new global terrorism.”
It is our contention in this paper that the core of religious fanaticism is real, genuine, transpersonal or spiritual experiences—of universal love, of cosmic consciousness, of being “born again,” of union with God—and that these constitute the cornerstone of the religious fanatic personality. We will also postulate that the problem with this disorder lies not in the transpersonal experiences themselves but in the way in which the personality organizes them, and that recovery from this disorder involves a harmonious integration of these experiences.
The substantiation of transpersonal experiences
However unbalanced religious fanaticism may be, it is important that in our understanding of it we do not devalue the transpersonal experiences that lie behind it. Methods that do not take into account the depth and authenticity of spiritual experiences may theorize that these experiences are simply a regression to a supposed infantile state of unity (although there is growing evidence that such a state does not actually exist, see e.g. Stern 1985/2000). Alternative theories that consider transpersonal experiences of the disturbed personality to be inferior or in some sense more primitive than the supposed more advanced transpersonal experiences of the healthy personality are not much better.
All of these theories, however, underestimate the ability of deep transpersonal experiences to affect us at all levels of development in all areas of our lives and across all personality types. It is our view that the religious fanatic personality does not have a regressive or lower transpersonal experience, but rather that the disturbed personality lacks the ability to integrate transpersonal experiences in a balanced and effective manner.
The latter point of view is clinically very important, because in any way denying or belittling a transpersonal experience in a person seeking our help can only lead to them repressing the experience, resisting therapy, or perhaps even avoiding therapy altogether. In any case, the client is not supported in their understanding and integration of these important life experiences.
It therefore seems obvious that only therapeutic approaches that understand, respect, and acknowledge transpersonal experiences—no matter what personality type they occur in—can promote their healthy integration into the whole person. Psychosynthesis, developed by the Italian psychiatrist Roberto Assagioli (1965, 1973a), constitutes one of these approaches.
Assagioli was a colleague of Freud and Jung (cf. McGuire, 1974, 241), and he sought not just an analysis of the psyche, but its “synthesis.” Such a synthesis would include the traumas of the lower unconscious, which psychoanalysis also explores, as well as the transpersonal experiences of the higher unconscious (see below)—the reality that humanistic and transpersonal psychology explores.
The psychosynthesis approach
In psychosynthetic terminology, religious fanaticism begins, healthily enough, with experiences at the higher unconscious levels of the psyche. At these levels, we may experience, for example, a connection to something greater than ourselves, a deep sense of universal meaning, and even union with the Divine or Spirit. These beneficial peak, oneness, or mystical experiences have been the subject of extensive research in humanistic and transpersonal psychology and are considered far more common than is commonly believed (see, for example, Maslow, 1962, 1971).
However, when we have such wonderful, expansive experiences, we can value them so highly that we come to identify with them and consider them to be our true selves. Such transpersonal identification (Firman & Gila, 2002) can in turn lead to attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that are based on a strong emphasis and even idealization of the higher, and these can, over time, develop into a coherent personality.
Such a person bases his existence on the assumption that this higher plane of experience is the most true, real, or ideal, combined with a tendency to dismiss other, more mundane planes of experience as inferior or illusory. This personality type belongs to a category we will call transpersonal identity disorder (TID), which we will discuss later in this paper.
Religious fanaticism is an extreme form of transpersonal identity disorder that, because it is fueled by this overemphasis and idealization of transpersonal experiences, becomes highly inflated and grandiose. Religious fanatics, often supported by an idealistic ideology and faithful colleagues, are capable of highly destructive behavior because this strong commitment to supposed higher truths overshadows all seemingly lower human concerns—and serves to denigrate the people and institutions that manifest these concerns.
This denigration of others may begin with terms like “undeveloped” and “unenlightened,” then move on to “inhuman” and “less than human,” and finally to the most harmful, “evil” or “satanic.” Terms like these can, of course, support the most extreme acts committed against fellow humans. Religious fanatics, however, care less about the suffering of others—or their own—than they do about their higher purpose, and they consider the harm they inflict to be justified by the higher good they seek.
Assagioli refers to this inflated transpersonal identification when he writes, “The inflowing spiritual energies may have the unfortunate effect of nourishing and inflating the personal ego” (Assagioli 1965, 44). He goes on to call this a level confusion:
“The fatal mistake of all who fall prey to these illusions is to attribute to their personal ego or “self” the qualities and powers of the Self. In philosophical terms, there is a confusion between an absolute and a relative truth, between the metaphysical and the empirical planes of reality; in religious terms, between God and the “soul.”
“…. cases of such confusion – be it more or less pronounced – are not uncommon among people blinded by contact with truths too powerful for their mental capacity to comprehend and assimilate. The reader will doubtless be able to recall similar cases of self-deception which can be observed in a number of fanatical followers of various cults (45)”.
Note that Assagioli affirms throughout the validity of the transpersonal experience: “Spiritual energies” that inflate, and “truths” that are too powerful to assimilate. It is the inflation and the inability to assimilate—and not the energy and truth of the transpersonal experience itself—that constitute the difficulty.
In religious fanaticism, it is the powerful energies of transpersonal experiences that nourish the personality and enable us to act beyond the uncertainties of normal human existence and the norms of conventional morality. Here we can achieve the complete self-confidence and security found in an idealized prophet or messiah. The psychosynthetic psychologist Frank Haronian (1983) put it this way: religious fanaticism would be an extreme case of “blindness to the sublime.”
It is therefore no surprise that the word “fanatical,” according to The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (Little, Fowler & Coulson 1933), comes from the Latin root “temple,” and that one definition is “possessed with God or the devil.” In religious fanaticism, this obsession or identification creates a charismatic personality that can attract and captivate other individuals, groups, and—tragically—even entire nations.
The polarization of the higher and the lower
A personality structure that is nourished by higher unconscious experience gains a seductive security and power through the sense of absolute truth found at these higher levels of experience. However, such a personality is also largely out of touch with other levels of the psyche, particularly the lower unconscious; the area within us characterized by experiences we have called primary wounding (Firman & Gila 1997, 2002).
This wounding is the result of an attack on our sense of self, our I-ness, caused by the failure of our care environment; it creates feelings associated with personal annihilation or non-being such as shame, exclusion, anxiety and fragmentation. The primary wounding is related to empathic failure, narcissistic violation, fear of disintegration and annihilation, described by Winnicott (1987) and Kohut (1984) among others.
We see here the two incredibly powerful forces that underpin the fanatic personality – we not only gain absolute certainty about ourselves and our calling in life, but we are also freed from the anxious uncertainty, the debilitating shame, and the horrific scenario of personal annihilation that looms threateningly on other soul planes.
We are like the donkey in the proverb, threatened by the whip while at the same time being enticed by the carrot in front of its mouth. We are trapped in a powerful energy field created by negative and positive poles that face each other (Firman & Gila 1997).
Religious fanaticism is constituted by a dependence on, an identification with, and an obsession with higher unconscious levels of experience, combined with a powerful dissociation from the primary wounding associated with the lower unconscious. At the same time, when the fanatical identification falters, and these deep wounds thus threaten to surface, a powerful, defensive rage can arise. Such “narcissistic rage,” as Heinz Kohut describes it, is the energy that leads to the dehumanization, abuse, and even destruction of other people when the fanatical program is challenged. Note, by the way, that such rage need not appear “raging” at all—the arrogance, obstinacy, and violence that underlie rage can masquerade as righteous indignation, unwavering commitment to principle, and valiant leadership in the service of a great and dangerous cause.
This powerful polarization between the higher and the lower creates the incredibly strong connection, charismatic attraction and drive that characterizes the fanatic personality. We are caught here in what Eastern traditions call “aversion and desire” that lies behind attachment. In Western tradition it is called the sin of pride – ironically, this identification with the heights would lead Dante to place us in the lower circles of the Inferno.
The healing and integration process
The many details of the healing of religious fanaticism are beyond the scope of this paper, but we can list some of the specific features it may entail. As we shall soon see, the main features of this healing process are quite the same as those of the more general category of transpersonal identity disorder.
Initially, healing is likely to involve what we have called a transformational crisis that destabilizes identification, i.e., an external or internal experience that shakes the person’s confidence and reveals the underlying wound. The emotions that emerge, such as anxiety, fragmentation, helplessness, and shame, are beneficial because they indicate a disintegration of the problematic personality structure and contact with the underlying primary wound. This disintegration is a necessary prelude to reintegration, i.e., to the creation of a personality capable of including the heights and depths of a full range of emotions.
Through such crises, a deeper involvement in the stages of psychosynthesis can occur (cf., Assagioli, 1965; Firman & Gila 1997, 2002). The principle here is that the imbalance in the form of religious fanaticism (and transpersonal identity disorder) in practice arises from the attempt to deal with the last two stages of psychosynthesis – 3) contact with the Self, and 4) response to the Self – while the earlier stages receive little or no attention: 0) survival of the wound, 1) exploration of the personality, and 2) emergence of the ego.
It is in these early stages that we expand our range of experience or middle unconscious (Assagioli) – the unrepressed levels of potential experience which, being temporarily unconscious, are nevertheless immediately accessible to our normal daytime consciousness. When we work with the first stages of psychosynthesis, we explore and include aspects from all levels of the psyche in our range of experience, including both higher and lower unconscious levels, and are thus less likely to become caught in a polarity between the higher and the lower when we are in contact with the Self at later levels.
It is important to point out that all of these levels occur more or less simultaneously, so the idea here is not so much to move through the stages as to work with them all in an ongoing manner. It should also be noted that these stages are never completely finished, but represent a healing and growth that takes place throughout our lives. It is true to say that we deal with all of the stages to some extent every day.
That said, the initial personal exploration and expansion of our range of experience in the early stages, which Assagioli’s scheme so nicely indicates, supports a balanced approach to the subsequent stages. Simply put, if we have a peak experience, a spiritual experience, an experience of religious rebirth or enlightenment—and do not allow this new awareness to lead us to a thorough exploration of ourselves—including the primal wounding associated with the lower unconscious—we risk having this experience taken over by our unexplored and unredeemed personality or “ego” (or technically our survivor personality, cf. Firman & Gila 1997, 2002). Without ongoing self-exploration, the deep beauty, love, and truth associated with transpersonal experiences can easily lead to religious fanaticism.
Transpersonal identity disorder
Let us state at this point that it is our belief, in agreement with Rosenthal (1987) and others, that most people who experience the heights of transpersonal experiences will develop some identification with these levels, even without exhibiting the extremes of thought and behavior that characterize religious fanaticism. This milder form of transpersonal identification can be included, along with religious fanaticism, in the general category of transpersonal identity disorder, since they both share the same structure: an identification with higher unconscious levels and a relative dissociation from lower unconscious planes. We might think of transpersonal identity disorder as a continuum consisting of religious fanaticism at one end and these more benign syndromes at the other.
These less toxic transpersonal identity disorders are far more subtle, far more common, and far less destructive than religious fanaticism. For example, Zen master Harada Roshi speaks here about this form of transpersonal identification:
An old Zen expression says that becoming dependent on one’s own enlightenment is as much a disease as demonstrating an insanely active ego. In fact, the deeper the enlightenment, the worse the disease.
….
My own illness lasted for almost ten years.
(In Zaehner, 1972, 98, emphasis added.)
So we are in good company when we realize that the heights of our transpersonal experiences have unconsciously fueled some part of our transpersonal identity disorder. This can manifest itself in many ways: a “spiritual” tendency to minimize physical expression and personal needs; difficulty acknowledging the “lower” or “negative” emotions in ourselves and others; workaholism under the guise of service to a higher good; a habit of adopting a higher, “more spiritual” viewpoint as a defense; an attachment to viewpoints that support the transpersonal identification; a dedication to spiritual practices that become addictive; a tendency to rationalize sexual addiction and other forms of destructive behavior as transcending conventional norms; a preoccupation with secret, esoteric knowledge; an intolerance and criticism of those we consider materialistic, less evolved, or unenlightened; or a belief that we are completely beyond the hurt of our childhoods.
Again, these reactions seem common and expected in response to touching the often dizzying heights of the higher unconscious. These more benign types of transpersonal identity disorder simply invite us to gently work through the stages of psychosynthesis to integrate our higher consciousness as simply an expression of our entire range of experience.
Integrating the higher and lower unconscious
Finally, let us emphasize that this understanding of religious fanaticism and transpersonal identity disorder is largely supported by the notion that the higher unconscious is only one level of our field of experience and must be integrated into us on an equal footing with the other levels. Assagioli wrote: “The superconscious (the higher unconscious) is only a part of the general unconscious” (1965, 198). That is, the higher unconscious is only one expression of our full spectrum of possible experiences.
Although the higher unconscious is often experienced as “synthetic” and “unifying,” it does not actually include the entire range of our experience, since it (at least) excludes the lower unconscious. To the extent that we do not recognize this limitation of the higher unconscious, we are susceptible to transpersonal identity disorder.
It seems important, therefore, not to consider the higher unconscious as higher levels of consciousness toward which we are evolving, while at the same time considering the lower unconscious as levels we have long since left behind. Nor should we take it for granted that the higher levels somehow include the lower levels. Rather, the higher unconscious can be considered as higher levels of consciousness that we need to include – in the middle unconscious – along with the levels of the lower unconscious. To put it another way, as we heal and evolve, our range of experience will expand in such a way that we can accommodate both the heights and the depths of life. This is precisely how healing from transpersonal identity disorder occurs.
Conclusion
It therefore seems useful in relation to religious fanaticism and other more benign transpersonal identity disorders to understand the higher and lower unconscious as valid sensory functions, valid bandwidths that can be included in our range of experience. In the course of the normal healing and development process, these two bandwidths can become part of the middle unconscious; that is, they can become part of the full spectrum of experience that we have access to on a daily basis. As this integration continues, we can avoid becoming obsessed with the powerful polarity that so easily arises between the higher and the lower.
In this expansion of the middle unconscious—a synthesis of the higher and lower unconscious—we can be moved by the love and pain that is in the world; be more aware of our own perfection and vulnerability; better able to draw on the heights and depths of our humanity. The higher and the lower are two lenses that together enable us to see and act within the full spectrum of human existence, and above all, enable us to sense and respond to the invitations of the Self on all planes of experience.
* * * * * * *
Notes
We agree with Lifton (2000) when he says that the complicity of others is a crucial element in the maintenance of religious fanaticism. Psychosynthesis can take this insight further by stating that religious fanaticism, like all personality structures, depends on the functioning of unifying centers (Assagioli, 1965; Firman & Gila, 1997, 2002), which are related to Kohut’s (1984) self-objects. Religious fanaticism is maintained by the relationship to what we have called positive unifying centers, i.e., internal and external “others,” which support the inflation of the idealized positive personality, which becomes the religious fanatic personality. The positive personality and the positive unifying center together constitute the structure of religious fanaticism in particular and transpersonal identity disorder in general. Healing involves the development of an authentic personality through the establishment of authentic unifying centers. For further information about this relational personality theory (Firman & Gila, 1997), please refer to our previous works.
It is clearly important that there is no headlong rush to immediately eliminate these symptoms associated with the disintegration of the problematic personality – in fact, they are the very path to healing. It is only through working with these difficult feelings that the client can move towards reintegration. However, this does not exclude therapeutic measures that facilitate this work.
It may be useful to note here that Assagioli, in outlining his model of the higher, middle, and lower unconscious—the well-known oval diagram—wrote that it “can only give a structural, static, almost ‘anatomical’ representation of our inner makeup, while excluding the dynamic aspect” (1965, 16). In other words, according to Assagioli, this model is very little effective in reflecting the changes that human growth and development entail. Therefore, we do not consider the oval diagram to be part of the developmental theory of psychosynthesis so much as to be part of its personality theory. This is one of the reasons why we have expanded Assagioli’s (1973b) psychosynthesis at different ages of human life into a developmental model within psychosynthesis. (We recognize the triangle of personality, developmental, and clinical theory as the three pillars of psychosynthesis.)
References
- Assagioli, R. (1965). Psychosynthesis: A Manual of Principles and Techniques. New York and Buenos Aires: Hobbs, Dorman & Company.
- Assagioli, R. (1973a). The Act of Will. New York: Penguin Books .
- Assagioli, R. (1973b). The Conflict Between the Generations and the Psychosynthesis of the Human Ages (Vol. 31). New York: Psychosynthesis Research Foundation. (The article is translated into Danish: The Conflict Between Generations and Psychosynthesis in the Different Ages of Human Life. Available at www.psykosyntese.dk).
- Bogart, G. (1995). Finding Your Life’s Calling: Spiritual Dimensions of Vocational Choice. Berkeley: Dawn Mountain Press.
- Firman, J. & Gila, A. (1997). The Primal Wound: A Transpersonal View of Trauma, Addiction, and Growth. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Firman, J. & Gila, A. (2002): Psychosynthesis: A Psychology of the Spirit. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. - Haronian, F. (1983). Interview with Frank Haronian. Psychosynthesis Digest, 2(1), 17-31.
- Jung, CG (1966). Two Essays on Analytical Psychology (Vol. XX). Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
- Kohut, H. (1984). How Does Analysis Cure? Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.
- Lifton, RJ (2000). Destroying the World to Save It. New York: Henry Holt and Company.
- Little, W., Fowler, HW, & Coulson, J. (1933). The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (3 Ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Maslow, A. (1962). Toward a Psychology of Being. Princeton, NJ: D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc.
- Maslow, A. (1971). The Farther Reaches of Human Nature. New York: The Viking Press.
- McGuire, W. (Ed.) (1974). The Freud/Jung Letters (Vol. XCIV). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
- Miller, A. (1981). The Drama of the Gifted Child. New York: Basic Books Inc,.
- Rosenthal, G. (1987). Inflated by the Spirit. In D. Anthony & B. Ecker & K. Wilber (Eds.), Spiritual Choices (pp. 305-319). New York: Paragon House.
- Stern, D. (1985/2000). The Interpersonal World of the Infant. New York: Basic Books.
- Winnicott, DW (1987). The Maturational Processes and the Facilitating Environment. London: The Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis.
- Zaehner, RC (1972). Zen, Drugs, and Mysticism. New York: Pantheon Books, Random House.
John Firman & Ann Gila
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